News / Palestine

Israel demolished 166,000 Palestinian homes since creation: Report

Wednesday, 07 October 2020 2:10 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 07 October 2020 3:16 AM ]

Israeli security forces watch as a bulldozer demolishes a Palestinian house near the village of Beit Awa, west of the occupied West Bank town of al-Khalil (Hebron), on September 23, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

Israel has demolished nearly 166,000 Palestinian homes since its illegal creation, a report says, adding that about one million Palestinian people have been displaced as a result of the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian Information Center, citing a report by the Land Research Center of the Arab Studies Association in the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds, said in a statement on Tuesday that the Israeli regime had razed to the ground about 165,690 Palestinian homes since its inception, and caused about one million Palestinians to be subjected to internal and external displacement.

“During the first nine months of the year 2020, the occupation forces demolished 450 homes and facilities, and also pushed some Palestinians to demolish their homes with their own hands,” the center added.

The statement also underlined that the Israeli regime had adopted the policy of limiting construction by Palestinians and compelling them to resort to building their homes without permits.

The center said Palestinians in the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds alone were in urgent need of 25,000 residential units.

Israeli authorities usually demolish Palestinian homes in the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds and elsewhere in the West Bank, claiming that the structures have been built without permits. They also sometimes order the Palestinian owners to demolish their own homes or pay the demolition costs to the municipality if they do not.

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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he would start plans for annexing more areas in the occupied West Bank, in accordance with US President Donald Trump’s "deal of the century" scheme, further infuriating Palestinians.

Trump officially unveiled his scheme in January at the White House with Netanyahu on his side, while Palestinian representatives were not invited.

The proposal gives in to Israel’s demands while creating a Palestinian state with limited control over its own security and borders, enshrining the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as “Israel’s undivided capital” and allowing the Tel Aviv regime to annex settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.

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Israel’s unlawful annexation push has drawn widespread criticism from the entire international community, including the regime’s closest allies.

The United Nations, the European Union and key Arab countries have all said the West Bank annexation would violate international law and undermine the prospects of establishing a sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 boundaries.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital. But Israel's aggressive settlement expansion and annexation plans have dealt a serious blow to any prospects of peace.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

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